Part 1 : Setting the Scene

(The Need)

Preface

- a flexible, changing book - how it came to be written - the people who have changed me - why we need this message - a Scriptural base.

1. What's it all about

- Living in a world of change where things go wrong - A Church Retreat where barriers came down - an imaginary look at a Sunday Congregation with its problems - A Lonely Vicar's wife - How we respond to these things.

2. A Refuge in an Insecure World

- The insecurity of today's world - The insecurity of Life itself - What we mean by 'Secure' - The danger of False Security - Secure in our Personal Prisons - God's intention for the Church to be a secure place.

Part 2 : A Biblical Security

(The Theory)

3. The God who is

- The use of the Bible in this book - How our view of the Bible will affect our security - Our Strategy here in using the Bible - The God of Self-Disclosure - The Identifiable God who we can understand - The Eternal God who is beyond us - The God who has History with us.

4. Secure with Jesus

- How people who met Jesus were obviously secure in his company - The woman caught in adultery - The cripple at the Pool - The man blind from birth - Peter and the Temple Tax - Zacchaeus - Peter after his denial - The woman at the well - The rich young Ruler.

5. Peter and Jesus

- How Peter felt so secure with Jesus - In the boat in the storm - Peter asks for Clarification - Peter on forgiveness - Peter's bold declaration - Peter rebukes Jesus - Peter looks for permanence - Peter's concern for the future - Peter's refusal to be washed - Peter's over confidence.

6. Security in the Old Testament

- Misunderstanding the 'God of Judgement' - God's dealings with Abram, Jacob, Joseph, Moses & David - Israel in the Old Testament - Different Old Testament Writings -  The Law, The Prophets, The Psalms.

7. Security in the New Testament

- Glimpses from the Gospels, Acts, the Letters and Revelation

8. The Level of Your Faith

-- What faith is - how it comes - Christians are people of faith - apparently small faith - how to build your faith.

Part 3 : Personal Security

(Practice and Theory)

9. Am I Secure?

- The difficulty of facing ourselves - What happens when things go wrong - How God works on us like the Potter - Some Personal Testimony

10. Utterly Loved

- How a Commitment Course was revealed as flawed - Instead 'Receiving Your Inheritance' - Seeing God's unconditional love - Seeing that God is for us - Seeing we are Precious to God 

11. A Two-Sided Coin

- SIDE ONE: We're not nice people! - 3 Negative Responses - 4 Key Truths - ongoing imperfection of Christians - How we get it wrong - 4 Positive Responses - SIDE TWO: We're wonderful people! - The difficulty of receiving this - The need to hold the balance of the two sides.

12. Rules & Regulations

- Some Case Studies where rules bring failure - The holiness church - The prayer ministry - Watching TV - Being a man in the Summer - Over-eating - Over-spending - The Problem of Rule Keeping - Do-it-yourself Righteousness - Outwardness, Sets of Rules, Special Days, Special Experiences - The one true security - Checking ourselves out. 

13. Secure in my Calling

- The fact of being called - The problem of having been a Christian from early age - The problem of destiny - 3 Views - God working for us before our conversion - The hard side of that - The realities of our conversion experience

14. Secure in Every Circumstance

- The disasters that can happen, even to Christians - The Problem of God's Sovereignty when disasters come -  The Facts of the Fallen World - Seeing the disasters in the light of that - God who gets involved - We're on display. 

15. Secure in my Gifting

- The Fact of Gifting - The example of Jeremiah - And now us? - Gifts are given - Gifts are Different - The Purpose of Gifts - When we think we don't have gifts or they're only limited  - What's the truth - Negative views of ourselves - The desires of our hearts - Early days gifting - Our part in developing our gifting. 

16. Secure Facing Death

- The reality of death - So what is death? - Trusting God's Goodness - The Comfort of the Cross - Eternity for us  - Facing the Path to Death - The available grace of God - The effect of the way we die - Facing the Judgement - Facing Eternal Life   

17. Secure in God's World

- Celebrating life - how the world abuses God's provision - the truth of God's provision: it is GOOD - the variety of God's provision, all for our enjoyment - self awareness is from God - invention and creativity is from God.

18. Secure in Change

- Coping with a changing world - The fact of change - A decaying society - Changes in the Christian world - The effect of change on Christians - Where is God? - 3 Scriptural pictures: Daniel, Jeremiah, Elijah - How will we cope with it?